Who Told All Those Europeans Ed Snowden Was On Evo Morales’ Plane?

On Wednesday, Bolivian President Evo Morales was geopolitically stopped-and-frisked in Austria on his way home from Moscow, which Bolivia has claimed was because the U.S. believed Ed Snowden was aboard his plane. Conflicting information has since emerged, with some claiming it was a routine stop that got blown out of proportion, others a flagrant abuse by U.S. imperialists. Today, however, it is clear that someone was telling Europeans governments that Edward Snowden was aboard Morales' flight, and it looks likely it was the U.S.

Today, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said on television that "they told us that the information was clear, that he was inside." He didn't say who they were. Hopefully he wasn't referring to "random people on Twitter." But the obvious culprit would be the U.S. During an interview in Moscow, Morales had suggested that he'd be willing to consider a possible Snowden asylum request. He claimed that France, Portugal, Spain and Italy had then all denied permission for his plane to enter their airspace after being pressured by the U.S. because they suspected Snowden might be stowed aboard.

Morales' flight was redirected to Vienna, where authorities attempted (either successfully or unsuccessfully—it's unclear) to search the plane. According to Firedoglake, Austria's leading daily paper, Die Presse, reported that the U.S. Ambassador to Austria had personally called the Austrian foreign department after Moarles' plane landed in Austria and "claimed with great certainty that Edward Snowden was aboard."

Of course it's possible that Ed Snowden, bored after almost two weeks in Sheremetyevo Airport, decided to prank call European leaders and claim he was on Evo Morales' plane himself.

[Image via Getty]